Lori King, Associated Press fileTom Noe, a coin dealer accused of stealing from a state investment, listens to his former business partner Tim LaPointe testify in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Nov. 2, 2006.

"Whatever happened to . . .?" is a weekly series updating some of the most newsworthy and interesting local stories covered in The Plain Dealer. Have a suggestion on a story we should update? Send it to John C. Kuehner.

Today, we answer this question:

Whatever happened to the Beanie Babies and other collectibles that Tom Noe invested the state of Ohio's BWC money in?

Someone out there owns Beanie Babies once owned by Ohio taxpayers. Who that person is apparently is lost to history.

The state of Ohio had a mess on its hands when the world came tumbling down on Noe, the disgraced GOP fundraiser and rare coin dealer who was convicted of 29 felony counts including racketeering, theft and forgery in the Coingate scandal.

The state sought how best to squeeze as much as possible out of the coins, sports trading cards, historical documents and, yes, Beanie Babies that Noe had invested $50 million of the state's Bureau of Workers' Compensation money.

The state turned to DSI, a corporate restructuring firm with a Columbus office. The company's head, Bill Brandt, lead the firm's effort. He said it took about five years to slowly sell off the coins, Beanie Babies, real estate, historical collectibles that Noe had invested on the state's behalf.

Brandt said the Beanie Babies along with other collectibles such as sports trading cards for sale and historical memorabilia were shipped to an auction house in 2005 or 2006 and they were sold to the highest bidder.

"I can tell you that despite the great rumors of some vast room with thousands of Beanie Babies piled in it, there were really only a few that had been bought," Brandt said.

Associated Press fileAmber, a Beanie Baby kitten, shown on a store shelf in this photo from 1999.

Brandt said selling the items was the easy part of his job, compared to untangling some of the complicated real estate investments Noe made on the state's behalf.

Brandt said the state actually recovered about $54 million -- turning a small profit on its $50 million investment. But taxpayers got back far less than the investment return they were promised by Noe.

He said that the small, incestuous world of coin collecting and dealing was nervous about the Noe investigation because many of the firms had relationships with the longtime Toledo coin dealer. Brandt said he used that as leverage at times during his negotiations.

"I remember asking one guy what his shoe size was," Brandt said. " When he asked me why, I said, 'It's because the warden needs about two weeks on the shoes, but the shirts he can just get right off the rack.' You could say I used some interesting bargaining techniques."

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